Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I've never really tried coloring with PS. I've always been doing B/W pictures since my coloring has been really hideous. Anyway, I found a great tutorial site that taught me how to get crisp lineart and nice coloring. This is my real attempt and I think the result is somewhat disappointing. The lineart is just so much better! >.<

I made a mess with the colors of the face, otherwise it would have been great...
Tell me what you think (they are quite large)

Colored
Original

that's awesome!
the original is nice already, you have talent!

computer colouring is my least favorite thing to do, so I can't really judge on it, but that coloured version is awesome!
I don't have much comments on it, except that on certain parts your shading is a little bit too hard

overall it's really good

Thanks a lot
I'm used to normal sketching and b/w pics but coloring is really not my field. I've seen 5-year-olds who color better than me
I know the colored face seems out of place, and the fact that I used too much shading on the clothes as well...

There was a disaster though. I flattened the layers, wanting to save it as JPG, but I typed Ctrl+S instead

Next time, try hitting ctrl+z and see if it will let you 'undo' back past where you screwed up and saved it. Then you can just re-save over the screwed-up one.

Actually, I kinf of like the uncolored one better. I prefer the nice clean lines. It looks like when you colored it, it sort of smudged the lines while coloring it in.

The shading on the clothes was the most successful, I think, and the shorts seem a little better than the shirt. Try considering the color of your light source and the color of your shadows. There is a lot of contrast between the shadows and highlights and the base shirt color. It doesn't have to be that striking, sometimes a subtler difference is better. The direction of the light source seems to be around the top of the scythe in the face and legs, but then it gets confused a bit in the sweatshirt. That being said, for a first attempt, it's pretty dang good. Yes, quite good.

The background seems unsuccessful to me, the coloring obscured what depth you had back there in your line drawing.

The character is really cool. He's a cute little kid with weird eyes... no! He's death incarnate!

Nice work!

Thanks for the constructive criticism and nice comments

The big problem was that I was too swift in closing the PS window after saving the image, after which I realized what blunder I just made.

I've always had trouble with inanimate objects, including backgrounds. I wish there is some tutorial explaining how to draw them...

We have the same preference with the uncolored one
Those crisp lines (my first time creating those too!) are really incredible. I usually finish a sketch with pencils, but since high B/W contrast is required for computer coloring, inking is completely necessary. Besides, I really like the thick-to-thin line differences.

About the line smudging part, I think this kind of thick-to-thin lineart is best suited for simpler colors. I believe diverse colors are more suited to fine, almost invisible lines.

The major problem with the shading is that I can't find the light source! In the tutorial, there is no background so the light is angled at the side, which makes it far easier to shade. This guy, on the other hand, is in an enclosed space with no visible light source, hence I shaded him with the light source in front of him, which is incredibly difficult.

By the way, did I mention it's a guy? He can be a girl too, judging from appearance. Anyway, that's the type of character I like to make — not too masculine or feminine (I'm not good at drawing girls... -_-)

Thanks again, now I know which part needs to be fixed in my future artworks.

I want you to know how impressed I was when I looked at the line art first. Excellent inking! Especially when I read that you don't ink often. Do it more, you do it very well.

I adore an excellent inking job.

Now, your colour version...

There is one major trick in Photoshop that I am not sure if you are utilizing. Layers! Layers are totally your friend and you can use them do do anything! Try putting your lineart on the bottom layer and your color on the layer above it. Then set the color layer to "multiply" Multiply makes whatever is darker underneath the multiply layer show through. like this:


(Top Layer with NO Multiply)


(Top Layer with multiply switched on)

I usually like to block in my main colours first like above. Then, you can go on to the shading...


(Some shading added)

A quick little trick that I think is great for beginners is putting a third layer above everything with a colour. In this case, I chose a purple that I found in your original, and lightened it up a bit. I placed that on the top layer, set the layer on multiply, and changed the opacity to 50%.


(Top third layer is purple, multiply, opacity at 50%)

Then the trick is to use the eraser tool on the top layer and erase where you feel the highlights should be.


(Erase the third layer where highlights should be)

Important: Always color at a high resolution (200 and up). Why?
1)you may want to print it out and 300 dpi is standard for printing
2)You get sharper edges when colouring.

Remember:
Upload a pic to the internet at 72 dpi (That is internet resolution). You can knock your 300 dpi original down, and save another copy to upload.

ALWAYS SAVE A SEPERATE FILE WITH YOUR LAYERS!
you may want to go back and change it!

I hope that this gives you some ideas at the very least. I know it might not be your style of colouring, but totally experiment with layers. I hope you don't mind me using a section of your drawing for a demo. Say the word, and I will take it down. I just thought your original inks were so cool, I wanted to help.

Thanks a lot, I just learnt a lot of things
I don't mind you using a section of my pic by the way

Some things I want to note:
-I use 300DPI resolution when scanning and coloring
-I do use layers as well as grouping for shading
-I use the blending mode 'multiply' on the lineart layer and color underneath
-As I mentioned above, due to carelessness I deleted the PSD file with layers
-Layering is my style, since it's really useful and important when coloring

I feel that with this kind of solid lineart, the block coloring (pic #2) looks best, with some shading applied as well. Your shading and highlights in the last pic is beautiful! I like the way you draw the highlights at the edge of the skin, and your smooth shading retains the quality of the lineart

However, the shading on the clothes looks rather incomplete due to the lack of it near the folds, so I think solid colors are more suitable when shading clothes

Highlighting would have been much easier with a tablet... I'm stuck with a mouse so it's very time-consuming

By the way, does anyone know any program (preferably freeware) which smoothens out lines to vector-like such as Adobe Streamliner?

I agree. I'd have done more if it was an actual colouring job. The patterns of light and dark on yours were more accurate.

Some of your line work was sort of lost... I thought that multipy might have solved the problem. And I know how it is to save after flattening! I've done it so many times! The worst is when you have to print something out and you accidently save it at 72 dpi and then close the file. Done that too many times too.

I still really like your style. Good luck!

I think it was my mistake tampering on the lineart too much (erasing, changing colors, etc.) in a failed attempt to make the picture look better